Grandma Petzinger's Stuhr/Stuart Ancestors

Our second great grandfather, Johan Friedrich Ludvig Stuhr was the grandfather of Grandma Thora Stuart Petzinger. He was born 24 October 1816 in Plon, Holstein which at that time was ruled by Denmark, but is now in the Schleswig-Holstein part of Germany (see the dark blue area at the southernmost tip of the Kingdom of Denmark and Norway in the above map). It was a town of about 2,000 people of mostly ethnic Germans and the district bordered Germany to the south, and Danish-speaking Schleswig to the north. During the early 1800s, German nationalists wanted to have Schleswig and Holstein remain together under Germany, but the Danes wanted to keep the mostly Danish speaking Schleswig in Denmark. Maybe impending war was a factor, but in any case, the Stuhr family moved from German-speaking Holstein to Danish-speaking Schleswig before 1843.

His wife, Marie Sophie Pouline [Pouline] Wildt was born in Schleswig where they apparently married about 1842. Their first child was born in Schleswig in 1843 and a second born in 1845. In 1848, the first Schleswig War broke out and ended in 1851 with both Schleswig and Holstein remaining under Danish rule. The war resulted in almost 8,000 Danish (and Swedish volunteers) casualties and almost 6,000 Prussian and German casualties.

Ludvik and Pouline's third child was born in 1848 in Hansted, a town in the county of Skanderborg in central Denmark (north of Schleswig). In 1849, fighting was in the same area, but the Stuhrs stayed in the area with one more child born in Hansted in 1850. The war ended in 1851 and by 1853, the Stuhrs had moved east to Karlebo, north of Copenhagen in Fredricksborg county, where the next five children were born, including Johan Friedrich Ludvig Stuhr, Thora Stuart's father, on 22 April 1860. The family appeared in the 1860 census in the town of Ullerod in Karlebo. Ludvik was working as a kiln operator, making bricks.

In 1864, war again broke out about the Schleswig-Holstein question and this time, Germany won both provinces. By 1880, the census shows the family living in a northern coastal town called Hvilsager in the county of Randers.

In February 1881, Ludvig Jr. and Sr., emigrated in February with Ludvig Sr.'s wife, Pouline, daughter Pouline and son Carl Christian and his wife and three children followed at the end of 1881. The steamship trip to the United States during 1880's took about 10 days and cost one year's farmhand wages.

Ludwig and Ludwig Jr. lived on Leversee Avenue in Cohoes, New York (across the river from Troy, New York) and both are listed as laborers in the city directory.

In 1900, Ludvig, Sr. (now John L. Stewart) was a widow and farming and living with his son, Carl Christian (now Charles W.) in Saratoga, New York. He moved in with his daughter, Pauline (now marrired to Charles Madsen) in Troy, New York where he died in 1911 in Troy, New York.

Ludvig Jr., (now Louis Stuart) married Anna Carolina [Carolina] Magnusson around 1893. She was born in 23 October 1873 in Kristianopel, Sweden and immigrated alone to the United States in 1892. Their first born, Emil Stuart, was born 4 March 1894 in Bennington, Vermont, and their second child {our paternal grandmother}, Thora was born 4 March 1896 in Troy, New York, while their third child, Alma L. was born back in Bennington, Vermont. In 1900, Louis and Carolina are living in Millburn, and by 1904, they were in Bridgeport, Connecticut where they remained for the rest of their lives. Great grandfather Louis died of bladder cancer in 1935 and great grandmother Carolina died from pneumonia two years later.